Employer Attractiveness and Employee Performance: An Exploratory Study

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Employer Attractiveness and Employee Performance:

An Exploratory Study

Minh Ha Nguyen1

, Nguyen Vinh Luan1

, Bui Thanh Khoa2

1Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Vietnam

2

Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

ha.nm@ou.edu.vn; luannv.16ab@ou.edu.vn (corresponding author); buithanhkhoa@iuh.edu.vn

Abstract. Improving employee performance always receives researchers and

organisational managers' attention as this factor contributes directly to the

organisational competitive advantage. Therefore, academic researches, as well as

practices, focus on the factors affecting employee performance. However,

employer attractiveness, primarily defined as the benefits of an organisation

perceived by potential candidates, has not received sufficient attention. Studies

regarding employer attractiveness have emphasised on the potential candidates,

rather than current employees. Therefore, this study focuses on discovering a new

direction - the impact of employer attractiveness on current employees, namely,

employee performance. The research method used in this study is the mixed

method, especially PLS-SEM analysis tool. Research data is collected from 937

employees from 37 organisations and enterprises in Vietnam. Research results

discover the statistically significant relationship between employer attractiveness

and employee performance. The results have helped confirm and develop the

employer attractiveness factor; especially the new safety value factor.

Keywords: Employer attractiveness, employee performance, employer

branding.

ISSN 1816-6075 (Print), 1818-0523 (Online)

Journal of System and Management Sciences

Vol. 11 (2021) No. 1, pp. 97-123

DOI:10.33168/JSMS.2021.0107

Nguyen et al. / Journal of System and Management Sciences Vol. 11 (2021) No. 1, pp. 97-123

98

1. Introduction

In addition to market size and customer loyalty (Khoa at el., 2020), business success

is also measured by corporate management's success, especially in human resource

management. Employee performance, how an employee performs their tasks, is

measured by comparing the task performance to job requirements including the

actual performance (leadership, time management, labour productivity) (Betaubun

et al., 2015). In other words, employee performance is the value chain of the

employee's contribution to the organisation's goal, regardless of whether the

contribution is positive or negative (Harwiki, 2016; Nguyen & Khoa, 2020).

According to Sok and O'Cass (2011), employee's contributions are quantified to

comprise other relevant factors. That employee performance is defined as the

organisation's ability to perform the skills (quality, efficiency and other related

factors at work). It is an especially important and necessary factor because of each

employee's ability to task performance (Masakure, 2016). In the more detailed

approach, Welbourne et al. (1998) assumed that employee performance depends on

the five key employee roles: job, career, innovator, team and organisation; in which:

job refers to job implementation description for each individual, career refers to the

skill implementation essential in organisational progress, innovator refers to work

creativity and innovation, the team demonstrates working ability among other

colleagues and team members to achieve the company's success, organisation

implies how the employee cares about the organisation's goals. Besides, Nguyen

and Ngo (2020) also discovered the positive impact of psychological capital on

employees' work performance. Moreover, Nguyen et al. (2019) also studied the

impact of job crafting on work engagement and work performance.

Unlike employee performance, employer attractiveness is differently defined as

follows. First, employer branding is marketing-like branding for a product or

company (Ambler & Barrow, 1996) or a communication form (Bergstrom et al.,

2002) or management process (Gatewood et al., 1993) or psychology (Jurgensen,

1978; Collin & Steven, 2002) or about employee behaviour (Soutar & Clarke, 1983).

The current widely accepted and used concept is developed by Berthon et al. (2005):

Employer attractiveness, the benefits of an organisation perceived by potential

candidates as the best place to work, includes five dimensions: interesting value,

economic value, social value, developmental value and application value. Following

the definition of Berthon et al. (2005), employer attractiveness has also been

extended to the existing employee object. Employer attractiveness is the perceived

level of both potential employees and current employees about the organisation's

competitive advantages; in which, the organisation is seen as the best place to work.

It will create a long-term and sustainable competitive advantage for enterprises

(Jiang & lle, 2011). Employer attractiveness is divided into Internal employer

attractiveness as the extent to which current employees feel attracted to the

organisation they are working for whereas External employer attractiveness shows